878 The Buckinghams “Kind of a Drag” 1966

“‘Kind of a Drag’ definitely made The Buckinghams happy. The song catapulted the regionally successful Chicago band to national stardom when it reached No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart in January 1967. ‘Kind of a Drag’ became both the commercial and sonic foundation for The Buckinghams with its use of a horn section, something the band didn't actually have…By the end of 1967, …The Buckinghams played 300 gigs and made numerous television appearances. ‘It was exciting, to say the least,’ guitarist Giammarese says about 1967. ‘It was a very crazy time and such a whirlwind. (We were) burning the candle at both ends and sleeping very little,’ Giammarese says. ‘But when you’re 19, you can handle that. The girls, it was the time period of the screaming girls, and you could hardly hear yourself onstage’” (Andrew Hughes, South Bend Tribune, 23 June 2011)

The Buckinghams “Kind of a Drag”